​We often lament on the demise of common sense, but one thing we forget is that it’s relative. What’s “common” to one person might be completely alien to another, depending on your day to day reality. Today, I’d like to share four bits of wisdom that I either figured out on my own, or that were only shared reluctantly when all other options were exhausted.

Vicks helps a headache. I discovered this by accident when I was struggling with my sinuses. At first I thought wow, that worked well, until I ran across something on Pinterest with the heading “WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY TELL ME ABOUT THIS?!” Maybe it’s because Vicks is considered an “old timey thing,” and we hesitate to admit that the new and improved remedies don’t always work the best. Whatever the case, if you struggle with sinus, menstrual, or tension headaches, then rubbing on some Vicks can help tremendously.

Exercise makes you sick before it makes you better. I talked to my doctor before starting the Focus T25 workouts two years ago. She warned me that they were intense, but assured me that I was ok to try it if I felt I could “handle it.” I thought she meant endurance wise, and I was determined to stick it out because I was overweight and felt terrible all the time. What she failed to mention is that an intense workout like that will make you feel physically ill before you start to feel better. I honestly thought I had caught a virus after my first week of workouts, and was surprised when a friend told me “you’re not sick, your body is objecting to your new workout routine.” A body at rest wants to stay at rest, and it naturally resists the heightened activity and metabolism from a new workout routine. It takes a lot of endurance to stand through soreness, constant headaches and an overall ill feeling. The good news is that what’s freely shared about exercise making you feel better and more energetic is true – it just takes about 6 weeks for that to happen.

Macs aren’t good for document creation and management. My iPhone is great for calls, texts, notes, calendars, pictures, apps, and checking things online. But when it comes to writing and managing things with it, I still need a PC. You can get Microsoft for Macs and mobile devices, but it just isn’t the same (or as easy) as writing on a laptop. I realize that the Macs are the new “status symbol,” but function trumps show off in my book. I need it to do what I want it to do, and there’s no doubt that Macs are designed more for graphics than they are for document creation and management. Macs are great for art, just not for my particular kind of art.

SlingTV is a better and cheaper option than cable or satellite. We tried them all and got so frustrated with the promotional rates expiring after a year or two. A couple of years ago we tried to go from Uverse to DirectTV to get that astronomical TV rate down, and they informed us that there were too many trees around our house for satellite service. Somebody Rick works with told him about SlingTV, which is an Internet TV service with packages starting at $20 a month. It doesn’t have as many channels as you get with the big providers, but do you really watch all of them anyway? We’ve been able to get access to everything we want to watch between that and our Roku apps for a heck of a lot cheaper than cable or satellite. The only caveat is that you don’t have digital recording, and they can take up to 72 hours to have new episodes available for streaming (this is rare, they’re usually ready the next day, like all of the other apps with streaming episodes). I would also recommend that you invest in decent Internet speed so it will be more agreeable. But still, upgrading your Internet and getting SlingTV through a Roku is still cheaper than what you’d pay to bundle Internet, TV and home phone. Who has a home phone anymore, anyway?

Sometimes, you have to figure things out on your own. Other times, you have to ask. But today, I’m passing this information along freely, in hopes that it will help, inspire, and inform those of you that might need it.That’s all today. Have a Happy Friday tomorrow and a wonderful weekend.

Hi all, I hope you’re doing well. I’m here on my weekly blog to tell you that I don’t have anything to blog about this week. It’s been an incredibly busy week, between work being in peak season now and writing The Tenth Dimension. Writing a novel during our busiest time of the year probably wasn’t my best idea, but the muse won’t wait, and I learned long ago to write when the inspiration hits. Unfortunately, that tends to be when things are rather busy. But the good news is that it’s coming along. I don’t do outlines for fiction novels, but I do have a “plot plan,” and according to that plan, it seems I’ve written about half the novel so far. I’ve done a lot of writing over the past week and it’s rolling along. I’ll have to take a day or two off from working on the novel, both to consider how to “unfold” this story and to give my wrists a rest. Work isn’t going to stop, and I need to use some common sense and not push the limits too much. I don’t want tendinitis again.

And progress is possible, because the deck is finally finished. No more Friday lumber runs Saturday physical labor days! YAY! It took over two months and involved plenty of lumber runs and frustration, but thanks be to God, it’s done. I’m definitely cured of DIY projects now! I’m glad we did it, and we’re enjoying it a lot and will for a long time. But I’m also hallmarking this as my worst idea ever, and I’m tremendously relieved to be able to talk about that work in past tense now! I definitely underestimated the amount of time, resources, and patience it would take to do it, all of which were stretched to the limit. Rick was definitely much more gracious and patient with the entire process than I was, but it’s done, and that’s what counts.

Unfortunately, all of this busy has sucked me dry of blog ideas. Heck, all of this busy has me taking every shortcut I can find to my chores, errands, and routine day to day stuff. Quick meals, quick cleanings, streamlining chores – any way I can to buy another minute to write, or rest! Making lists in my phone are also serving as my surrogate brain while I’m drifting between deep fried insanity at work and being in my own little world the rest of the time. But the good news is that at least I and everybody else around me are doing well (thanks be to God!). We’re alright!

I can already hear all of you who warned me before with the “I told you so” on building the deck and writing a novel during my busiest time of year. Heck, I see your point and comply with shutting down all I can in May and June most of the time, but I just couldn’t do it this year. Opportunity and inspiration hit, and I stand by my decision that I shouldn’t be bound by my job. It’s one part of my life and shouldn’t rule the rest of it. There’s always work and obstacles to work and push through in any worthy endeavor. Balance is about working all things together.

I always make it through these busy seasons, and things will settle. Don’t worry. In two weeks, I’ll probably be here complaining about being bored without my writing all over again.

That’s all today. Take care. Have a Happy Friday tomorrow and a wonderful weekend.

I saw a sign yesterday that read “the universe has shaken you to awaken you.” After I recovered from my full body cringe over the use of passive voice, I realized this is a good point. We often talk about how life challenges how they help us to grow and prepare for future blessings. But often, we miss another aspect of them: sometimes, life’s surprises are simply a wake-up call to alert us to the fact that reality isn’t what we think. The point is to shock us out of complacency and make us change how we think and do things.

It happens to us all. In fact, the smaller things happen regularly: the hardware store doesn’t have something you bought there a month ago, doesn’t have plans to restock, and forces you to completely rework a big element on a major project (you saw this one in my last blog). You found bugs in the kitchen because it rained two hours after the pest control service came and washed away everything, and they didn’t bother to come back and redo it. You didn’t know the coworker had a cold, so you didn’t wash your hands after using the copier after them, and you get sick a week later. Those inconvenient truths interrupt the flow of our life on a daily basis. I once had somebody sum these up perfectly: life happens. Other times, it’s bigger: you break your foot walking upstairs, and have to deal with six weeks of people staring at you and asking “what happened!” while hobbling around in an orthopedic boot. Your publisher, who loved the paranormal elements in the last book you published have decided to get away from that theme and ask you to rewrite your current project to remove the paranormal elements, leaving you to decide whether it’s worth it to rewrite years’ worth of work, or to remain true to your theme and self publish. You don’t get the job, because your friend gave you a bad reference when a superior pressured them to provide a reference for their friend, and they decided that position trumps loyalty. These are a bit more shocking, and often require us to adjust and rethink life.

We often come out of these situations saying “I should have known better.” Maybe we should, but let’s be honest for a moment: it’s a big, complicated, scary world out there. We settle in our comfort zones because we need these habits to keep us sane. We need to feel like we understand the world we live in, and like we’ve adapted to it well. The problem is that reality is an ever changing thing, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Sometimes, we don’t see things because we’re overwhelmed trying to keep up. Other times, we’re so relieved at not having things “in our face” that we don’t want to be jerked out of that comfort zone and deal with things that we should be paying attention to.

The truth is that the world is never what we think. Things are always in motion, and there’s no way to keep up. Things change; people change; and it’s impossible to know what’s going on outside of your own head or life. There’s no way we’ll know all things, so sometimes these shake up’s will wake us up to surprises that we have to adjust to. And that’s alright. It’s nothing to feel bad about. Even people who have their crap together the best get these gut punches every so often, because nobody’s immune to it. It’s just another example of how we’re human beings living in an imperfect world.

Maybe you should have known better; or maybe you had no way of knowing until that surprise hit you in the face. Whatever the case, now you’re awake and your job is to figure out how to use this to make a better tomorrow.

My progress report for last week was a bit long for a social media post, so I decided to do it here. As you can see, construction on the utility shed is complete. We mostly finished it last weekend, but decided to put up some lattice on the side and back to neaten it up a bit. We're thinking about pouring concrete out there, but that will be a project for another day. While on lumber, we decided to stick with lumber, and finish the deck project before moving on that.

The deck is still progressing. We did a good bit of work last week after work on days when weather permitted and made good progress. Unfortunately, there were a couple of setbacks. The biggest was that we couldn't find the banister clips we needed. We got the ones for the first phase at Home Depot, but remembered why we swore to never Never NEVER shop there again when we went back to get more. Not only did they not have them (they obviously haven't restocked since we bought the clips for that first part of the project, back in late April) but they claimed they didn't know what we were talking about and had never heard of such a thing. We tried to use the clips sold at Lowes, but they didn't match up and, as a result, wouldn't line up with the work we've already done. There's no way we're taking down nearly 2 months worth of work over banister clips, so we just removed the clips and had to nail the banister and stair rails directly into the deck posts. Not an ideal solution, but those clips were becoming a time consuming problem, so instead of continuing to fight it, we bypassed it. But there were a few other little things: neither store had banister rails like we used, and we were short on a few things to complete some detail work on the deck. So the good news is that the major construction work is done, so hopefully the Friday night lumber runs and weekend marathon workdays are in the past (I fervently pray they are!). But we do have a few more things to attend to before it's really and truly done. Soon, I hope, and we'll share pictures of the deck when it is. We do need to wrap it up. It's already hot out there, and it's just getting worse, especially with the humidity. I wouldn't be surprised if we started breaking 100 degrees here again soon, and there's no way you can go out and work in that.

So that's good, and as a reminder, don't waste your time at Home Depot. They need to change their slogan from "you can do it, we can help," to "you can do it, despite our poor stock and incompetence (especially if you keep going up the road to Lowes to get your stuff there instead)."

I'm glad the DIY work is winding down , because "crunch time" has come at work. The first of two June deadlines is this week, so we'll no doubt have some adventures ahead. But I do feel good about these projects winding down, and wise planning is key. I'm putting my book reviewing on hold until I get past our annual spike in the workload. I'm sorry because it's award season over at Reader's Favorite where I review, but I do have a day job, and while I refuse to let these deadlines rule my life, balance and reasonable accommodations do need to be made. I know I won't be able to meet the deadlines on reviews, and simply avoiding it by not signing up for reviews is best. They understand and would prefer that I take a break over pushing those deadlines anyway. I'll pick the reviewing back up in a few weeks, perhaps after the 4th of July when things are settling down again.

The cross stitching and crafting is also on hold, as you may have seen at SherritheStitcher last week. I'm planning to take that back up in mid to late summer, after this heavy work season is done and I get through this round of writing that I'm working on.

On writing, I've written 10 chapters of the rough draft of The Tenth Dimension. I'm enjoying this project and am happy with my progress. My goal during the rough draft stage of a novel is to write 3-5 chapters a week, and so far I've done that. I know work will be busy, but that tends to fuel my creativity, so we'll see if it helps or if I slow down. Either way, it's not like I'm on a deadline. The only thing that makes me nervous is that the last time I wrote a novel during license renewals, I tore two tendons in my right wrist. But I have a wrist brace, wrists rests, and try to take sensible precautions now. I'll try to pace myself between my writing and "day job" workload. I think this can work and better yet, I think that the writing may help me relax and handle they day job better. At least I'm happy when I write, which I think bodes well for everything else in my life. We'll see how it goes.

It's been pretty busy lately, but it looks like things are leveling out on the home front just in time for the busy season at work, which actually is pretty good timing. We'll see how this week goes. I'm trying to keep my personal goals flexible these days, and to be satisfied with any progress. So far, I'm happy with that, and things are going good so I say I'm blessed and thanks be to God.

​Alright folks, we get it. It came through loud and clear last weekend when our posts regarding work on the deck and progress on my novel garnered no likes that you’re sick of both. That’s alright. I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and understand that people don’t stay excited about things with you much past the exciting first stages. It’s why internal motivation and self control are so important. People have their own concerns and are too busy to keep cheering you on.

So today, I’m trying something else. My daily Bible reading has been in the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes over the past couple of weeks – two of my favorite books that I always look forward to. Today, I thought I’d update this sage advice on the importance of wisdom and doing what’s right to fit in with the current state of the world. So today, I bring you my list of modern day proverbs. I hope you enjoy these tidbits of wisdom that we’ve all learned through the school of hard knocks:

Pray about everything. Praying without ceasing doesn’t mean doing it all the time. It means taking the time to lift things up when you need to.

Don’t ignore your conscience. It’s the Holy Spirit working in and through you. Heed it and it will grow stronger. Ignore it, and it will go away – then you’ll really be in trouble!

Faith isn’t a Sunday morning thing or “fire insurance” from hell. It’s the foundation of your life.

Changing the world is an inside job. There are a lot of things you can’t control, but the biggest factor is completely under your control, and that’s your attitude. You have a choice on whether to see the sun, or look for the cloud in every silver lining – and that determines your true success.

Read the instructions, all the way through, all of the time.

Always do your best. Reality is bigger than what you see around you, and things reach further than you can perceive.

There’s nothing new under the sun, but that covers a lot of territory since creation. You don’t know everything, so never stop learning.

Technology and machines are great until they don’t work, then they’re the bane of your life.

Whoever said “there’s no such thing as a stupid question” didn’t have to answer nearly enough of them.

Nothing garners excuses more effectively than a deadline.

The brain is a muscle and like all muscles, it strengthens with use. Use it or lose it.

Nobody feels sorry for you if you’re in a situation you created, and pity isn’t something to strive for anyway. They’ll be more impressed if you use tough situations to gain wisdom and demonstrate perseverance, self discipline, and self control. Nobody admires or pities whining and complaining.

Scientific evidence has proven that success is directly correlated with connections. Doing your best is the straight path to nothing more than what you have right now, because people value flattery over competency. And this is just plain wrong, but it’s where the devil has established one of his strongest foothold on humanity. Your true choice is whether to sell your soul for success in this world, or stand by your integrity and morals for a crown in the next.

Words lie, but actions speak truth.

Praying for wisdom doesn’t bestow it on others.

Don’t make resolutions, create habits. A habit is more likely to lead to success than a sacrifice. For example, don’t say “I have to exercise.” Establish a habit of integrating more physical activity into your life until skipping it feels unnatural.

Speaking of exercise, strive for healthy rather than skinny. Those actors/actresses and models you see on TV and the Internet work out for upward of 6 hours a day and eat a diet that would turn us into crab people because it’s unrealistic in the long term. Half a day working out and a shake diet? Come on! No real person has time for that! Establish a habit of eating better and exercising regularly, and be happy with your best. Scales don’t tell the entire story, and aren’t a full measure of results.

Life is a winding journey, not a straight path. You never know who or what might come back around, so don’t burn bridges.

Money can get you into and out of a lot of things, but it can’t buy health or happiness.

Be careful what you wish for. You never see all it takes to have what you want from the start. It always requires more than you anticipate because you’d run like hell if you knew how much work it would take to bring things to fruition.

Don’t be a jerk. At best, it’s short term success that leads to long term loss.

Be honest, with discernment. Lying makes enemies, as can being too “in your face” with the truth. Pray for discernment to express yourself correctly, accurately, and with respect for others.

Don’t skip your medications. Believe me, you aren’t as charming as you think. Your doctor prescribed them for a reason, and when you skip it, it shows. If paying for them is a problem, talk to your doctor about how to get them within your budget or cut back on other things. Remember what I said above about not being able to buy your health. You can’t skimp on it, either.

When you’re happy, people are jealous. When you’re sad, they scatter because they don’t want your bad luck to spread to them.

To thine own self be true. People can tell when you’re putting on an act. If they like you, let them like the real you. If they have a problem with you, at least let it be a problem with the real you, not some mask you’re wearing.

Don’t be an attention hog. You can accomplish more in your own little world than you can surrounded by people fault finding and trying to tell you what to do and how to do it.

You can take or leave advice, but experience is a powerful, undeniable teacher.

Learn from mistakes, or be doomed to repeat them – and that is a unique form of insanity.

Be a decent human being. Don’t be a respecter of persons. We all came from nothing, and you never know where you’re going next. Character stands above circumstances.

Don’t pray for patience. Those lessons will come, and usually right when you don’t need them.

Don’t say “the last thing I need right now is –“ because that’s the fastest way to call it upon yourself.

Be content with what you have. Don’t envy others or look down on them. Life is a series of peaks and troughs, and all things pass into different things in time. Plus, you don’t know what the Lord is leading you to or protecting you from. The secret to success is to make the best of what you’ve got, and take every opportunity to improve as you live on this strange wave that C.S. Lewis called “The Law of Undulation.”

Watch less TV. It’s the #1 way we waste time. Try cutting back on one show a week and see if that “One day I’ll get around to –“ list starts to shrink.

Be mindful of what you do watch and listen to. It has a bigger impact on you psyche than you realize. I was a lot happier when I switched from listening to mainstream radio to Christian, classical, and soundscape CD’s on my morning and afternoon commute. Sure, I do still occasionally listen to the rock music when I’m seeking inspiration for my writing, and that’s the key: to know what “mental attitude” you’re striving for, and watching/listening to things that put you in synch with it.

Be careful what you say in front of a parrot. Some things are cute coming back at you from your feathery friend. Some aren’t.

Listen more than you talk.

Don’t listen to anything preceded by “If I were you –“ because that’s an indicator that they don’t know what they’re talking about (and they’d never have the audacity to really do what they’re about to say).

Take at least 20 minutes each day to do something important to you. You can find a way if you really want to.

Eliminate the phrase “I’m busy!” from your vocabulary. You make your schedule. Take control of it, or be quiet because you’ve accepted it and everybody knows it.

Be positive and give thanks for your blessings. It really does improve your perspective, and draws more good things to you.

Be mindful of your motives. Good intentions are meaningless if you have ulterior motives and your heart isn’t pure.

You can’t control other people, so don’t try. Respect their ability to make decisions and you’ll find that others respect you. These days, respect isn’t automatically given because of age or status. It must be earned.

Live your priorities.

Be consistent. We all have good days and bad days, but don’t let your moods determine who you are. Be the same person all the time.

Deal with your fears. Fear is a powerful motivator to your detriment, because it holds you back. Be motivated by right, good things, not this classic trick of the devil.

Commit to less and make fewer promises. It’s easier to keep your word if you give it after thoughtful consideration. Promises made in excitement or haste usually lead to inconvenience at best, and pain at worst.

Spend your time keeping up, not catching up. Do what you’re supposed to do. Spend time working and delivering, not making excuses.

Respect the Earth. We were created to be it’s guardians. It may pass away but that’s no excuse to shirk this duty, because we will be judged by it.

The most offensive thing in the world is when people tell you to get your crap together, and you actually do it. Because it usually exposes the fact that their crap is not as together as they pretend it is! Then it turns into a blatant “I upped my standards, now up yours” situation.

We aren’t supposed to pass judgement, but that doesn’t stop people from doing it anyway. Don’t’ worry about what others think because it’s nothing more than an opinion from flawed fellow man. Life your life as you’re called to live, and then you’ll pass the ultimate judgement that does matter.

Don't EVER volunteer personal information, financial information, or especially offer to hand out credit card or account numbers! I can't tell you how many people have freely offered me personal information they should be guarding more tightly because they're too lazy to do what they're supposed to do, and want me to do it for them. Lucky for them, I'm a Christian. Unfortunately, not everybody is, and there are a lot of people who would gladly take that information and use it for their own benefit. I see why identity theft is such a big problem now, and you should be guarding against it more, too.

That’s not all, but that’s enough for today. What can you add to this? We all have things we believe is common sense that isn’t nearly common enough. What makes your list?

I hope this has been an entertaining break from book and deck progress – which are still moving forward, but we won’t talk about that right now.

​The calendar may not say it, but all other signs point to it: it’s summertime! Whether it’s the soaring temperatures, the kids being out of school, or the recent Memorial Day holiday, the summer season has come upon us again. So what are your plans for summer break?

I know, there is no summer break in the grown up world. Unless you’re retired, life goes on as usual regardless of the season. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t celebrate summer and enjoy the long, warm days. If you’re lucky, you may have vacation time to take a break. If you aren’t lucky (like me) and summertime is “crunch time” for you, then you may have to get more inventive. That’s alright. Happiness is a choice, and a balanced life means that you don’t let circumstances dictate whether or not you get to enjoy this day, season, or heck, your entire life. So how do you choose joy amidst the myriad of responsibilities that won’t let up because of the season?

I have news for you: things will never be perfect. We live in an imperfect world, and there will always be something to show it. Whether it’s circumstances or people being the pain, I think it’s important to have a good life balance so you don’t fall into the trap of letting people or circumstances bring you down. For example, now is my busiest time of year at work. It always will be due to multiple June deadlines, and there’s nothing for it. All jobs have busy seasons and there’s no escape. I can allow myself to be stressed out over it every year and relegate myself to a miserable early summer every year; or I can accept it, do my best, and have things in other areas of my life that I enjoy and look forward to when it’s final five o’clock here. Last year, chose the former. I put personal pursuits on hold so I could rest when I got a chance – and it didn’t work. I was miserable, and I regretted it.

This year, I made a different choice. I decided that my workload shouldn’t dictate decisions I make in other areas of life, and that I could and would enjoy my whole summer, regardless of circumstances. My job is one part of my life. So I’m writing another novel now, which may seem silly to do when things are busy, but I’ve found that being busy actually seems to spark my creativity. I guess it gives the muse more to work with. And I’m not about to let a chance to write another novel go. I love writing, and there’s no reason why I can’t do it.

And, as you saw in my last blog, I’m dedicated to finishing this deck project. The hardest part is done, so it’s a matter of finishing it now because we’re almost there! It’s hard work and requires a bit more “push” in the motivation area, but seeing it come together is encouraging me to bring this emerging dream into reality. I’m proud of our work and what we’ve learned in the process, and I know that we’ll be happy when we achieve the completion of this goal and can enjoy grilling on that deck this summer, and in years to come.

My point is that you can choose to be happy, regardless of circumstances. Too often, we let ourselves get sucked in by what’s putting the most pressure on us at the time. This is why you hear me go on about hobbies and life balance so much. If you want to have joy in life, then you need to have a proper perspective on things. You have to realize how each part fits into making an entire life, and not let one thing have more weight on your soul than it should. Because it will always be something out of whack. That’s life. You can’t help that, but you can help how you deal with it, and realizing the good can help you deal with the bad more effectively – so maybe you’ll find that it isn’t so bad after all.

That’s all today. Have a Happy Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Bye!

Sherri the Writer

By day, I'm a program assistant. By night, I'm an independent author. My fiction is a dark mirror to the reality I see every day.